One data state, two data logics: Unfolding China's data governance

China’s data governance has recently caught international attention with its newly launched National Data Bureau. As China appears as a powerful data state on the global stage, its data governance presents a puzzling picture of interests between economic development, national security, and social justice, each demanding a different form of control, raising questions on the approach of Chinese state in the data domain. This chapter provides an account of China as a data state through its recent policies, regulations and their implementations. We argue that China’s data state is not a monolithic top-down machine of control. Rather it is dynamic across contexts, with deliberate efforts to embrace different forms of data politics, that is contentious politics and institutional politics. This chapter serves as an exploratory effort of constructing a potential typology of data state by identifying two data logics (i.e., data as strategic assets and data as commons) that drive the building of China as a data state. We propose three future research directions to further this line of research by calling for a holistic perspective on China as a data state, comparison studies between China and other states’ practices in the data domain, and more in-depth investigation into the relationship between state, public sector and tech giants.